


Taco Picnic

by Exterminatorviolence



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Tacos, That's it, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:07:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1781809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exterminatorviolence/pseuds/Exterminatorviolence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joel wasn't the brightest, but a taco picnic seemed like a good idea to him for a birthday gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taco Picnic

**Author's Note:**

> Idea from an ex of mine who was talking to me about a taco picnic date he had planned for his girlfriend's birthday. The only difference is that the date doesn't shit all over the plans. Hope you enjoy! It's just pointless fluff really.

If you asked anyone who's ever known or dated Joel Heyman, they would all tell you that "he never put any effort into any relationship he's ever had". It wasn't that he didn't like-or love in some instances-these people, he just didn't put effort into anything he did. Life worked out for him in the end though, because he scored a job with friends he loved and he more or less worked on the internet. A voice actor to be more specific, and a very popular one at that.

But putting effort into relationships, like buying stupid cards for anniversary's-not that he ever made it to one to buy a card-, or sending flowers, or setting up cheesy dates that he only saw in movies, or spending every waking second with the person, never appealed to Joel. He does, sometimes, put a little effort like sending a pointless text, but it rarely ever got bigger than that. 

He swore that he would "never put effort into a relationship" because he "knows that they'll eventually move on and leave" him. His best friend, Jack, would roll his eyes and tell Joel that he was being an idiot and that "obviously no one would want to date someone like that". Joel would proceed to give Jack his famous glare and then slump down onto the couch next to him and sulk about how he will end up alone for the rest of his life. 

That was until a one, Ray Narvaez Jr., came along and completely blasted all of Joel's former rules about relationships out the door. 

They met at an internet convention seven months ago, Ray being a fan and practically fainting when he met Joel, and Joel almost willing to throw dignity out the door when he laid eyes on the young Puerto Rican. Neither seemed to mind the age difference, ("I mean YOLO, right?" Joel nearly scoffed) the only problem was that Ray lived in New York and Joel lived in Texas. This caused more than a few problems for the pair, one being that Joel tended to be a little paranoid and worried that Ray would find someone better than him. Ray would always insist that, that would never happen and was trying his best to try and move down to Austin to be with Joel. 

While this was a slow process it meant that Joel had to put a little effort into the relationship, for the first time in his life. He'd never tell anyone but Jack, and if asked he'd deny saying it, but he would fly to New York every month if just to see Ray smile. Ray seemed to have put Joel into a trance, much to everyone's surprise and amusement, and whenever he visited, Joel would drop everything to make Ray happy. While Ray found this endearing, he tried his best not to take advantage of it, but hey, if he sometimes asked for food that he didn't have to pay for...well, he was only human. 

But with Ray's birthday coming up soon and Joel at a loss of ideas of what to do while he was in Austin, while Ray was in New York, he found himself asking Jack for some help on what people in relationships do on birthday's. 

"But, Jack, you don't understand. I don't know what it is people do on birthdays-much less when they're in a relationship," Joel was pacing back and forth in his office with Jack sitting in his desk chair watching Joel with amusement. 

"Dude, it's really not that hard. What's something he likes?" 

Joel furrowed his eyebrows. "Video games and tacos," 

"Than, why don't you surprise him or something?" Jack chuckled. "Why don't you fly up to New York for his birthday and show up at his apartment with an armful of tacos?" While Jack meant this as a joke, Joel suddenly stopped pacing and Jack could've sworn he saw a light bulb flicker on above Joel's head. 

"That's...actually a great idea," Joel turned to face his friend. "Do you think Burnie would give me a few days off to visit Ray?" 

"Possibly? You've already taken a lot of days off to see your princess, though. He might say no," Joel rolled his eyes at Jack's comment on Ray being his princess. 

"I...just won't say anything then. I'll just go up there without anyone but you knowing," Joel said this with such determination that Jack almost thought it was a good idea. But he remembered that he needed to be the rational one here. 

"Joel, look, I love you, man you know that," Joel nodded. "So, while I'm all for you going up to visit Ray, maybe you should tell  _someone_ else that you're planning to go up to New York unplanned." Jack raised his hands up in a surrendering motion as he stood up to leave Joel's office. 

Joel nodded as he watched Jack leave his office and tried to think of someone he should tell about his plan. He decided he should tell Michael, that way, Ray's best friend would know about it, and maybe Michael could help him in making it special. 

\-----

On opening the door to the Achievement Hunter office, Joel was welcomed by the squawking of Gavin and the laughter of the others. He stood stock frozen for thirty seconds, before he deemed himself mentally ready to venture into the chaos that was apparently an office. He searched out for the temperamental red head, and found him in his usual spot at his desk, headphones on, controller in his hands, and yelling loudly at Gavin.

"Jesus Christ, Gavin! What the fuck are you doing?! You're in a fucking forest, get out of the forest you, mong!" Gavin answered with a laugh and an awkward squawk while he nearly fell out of his chair while leaning with his controller. 

Joel took a spot on the couch and nodded to Jack who was laughing at the whole ordeal. Geoff was laughing while yelling out about how Team Nice Dynamite was going to break up over this.

Twenty minutes later of gaming, yelling, and laughing, Geoff decided that they had enough footage for a Let's Play, and everyone proceeded to get up to leave for lunch. Joel caught Michael's arm before he left.

"Michael, I need your help,"

"Oh, hey, Joel. Can I grab my food and then meet you back here?" He motioned with his hand, pointing his thumb out of the door. Joel let go of his arm and nodded.

When Michael got back, Joel was once again, sitting on the white couch, his hands fiddling with each other on his lap. Michael took a seat and rolled it over so he was facing Joel. "So, what seems to be the problem, J-Roll?" He smirked when Joel rolled his eyes at the nickname. 

"Please, don't call me that. I can barely tolerate it when Gavin calls me it," He ran a hand through his unruly hair. "So, Ray's birthday is coming up and I had the idea to fly up to see him as a surprise and have a taco picnic," Joel's face flushed when Michael raised his eyebrow. 

"Taco picnic?" 

"Shut up. He likes tacos and I'm not great at this whole thing anyway but-" 

Michael cut him off. "It's an adorable idea, Joel. Really. Ray's a sucker for that kind of shit, Joel. He'd love it," Joel let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He didn't know that he was actually desperate for his boyfriend's best friend's approval. "But, don't fly up there." 

"What? Why?" Joel's brow furrowed in confusion. 

"Because, idiot," Michael smirked. "He's going to fly down here himself. He has his own surprise for you." Michael winked and laughed when Joel made a disgruntled face. "Don't worry Joel, it's a good surprise." With that Michael rolled back over to his desk, slid his headphones on and proceeded to click and type. Joel took that as his cue to leave, and stood up, silently thanking Michael as he left the room. 

\-----

Joel was now standing in an airport, trying to look around the mass sea of people that were bustling around to find the one head that he wanted to find. He didn't expect a smaller body barreling into him at full speed with arms wrapping around his waist. 

Joel smiled when he realized who was hugging him and tilted his head down to kiss the head that was pressed against his chest. "Well hey there," Joel murmured warmly. 

The head in question tilted up, glasses slightly off kilter with brown eyes shining behind them, smiled and whispered a greeting before planting a small kiss to the older man's lips. Ray pulled back slightly and reached behind him to grab, much to Joel's surprise, a whole suitcase. "Sorry it took me so long to find you. I had to wait like, twenty minutes, before my bag came down. You weren't waiting too long, were you?" 

Joel chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, only about a half hour," He wrapped his arm around the smaller man's shoulders, who leaned into him and dragged his suitcase behind him. "What's the suitcase for? I thought you were only gonna stay for a few days?" 

Ray smirked and looked up at him. "Well, now, isn't that the a hundred dollar question?" Joel rolled his eyes, but led Ray out to his car. "Don't worry, Sweets," Ray smiled over to Joel. "It's a nice surprise." And despite Joel's doubts, he couldn't help but believe the younger man. He could hear the Jack in his head laughing and saying that Joel was wrapped around Ray's pinky. "So, where are we going?" 

Joel smiled while driving, and turned to Puerto Rican. "Well isn't that the a hundred dollar question?" Joel smirked as he repeated the question to Ray. 

"Har, har. Just drive then, asshat." Ray stuck his tongue out at Joel, though the older man couldn't see it. 

Twenty minutes later they were pulling into a field much to Ray's confusion. "What are we doing here?" Joel ignored the question as he got out of the car and opened the door for Ray. "Joel Heyman, ever the gentleman." He smirked, but nonetheless, took the hand that Joel offered. He waited as Joel went to rummage in the trunk and looked out into the field. Ray would admit, he wasn't the biggest fan of the outside world, but with Joel, he was willing to do a lot more than just go outside. Some would argue that Joel was wrapped around Ray's finger, but Ray would sometimes admit that he was the one that was wrapped around Joel's finger. 

"Okay, c'mon," Joel appeared back next to Ray with a picnic basket gripped in his hand. 

"Uh," Ray smiled a little as he looked at the basket. "What's that?" He pointed a finger to it. Joel just smiled and grabbed Ray's hand and led him into the field. Ray had butterflies fluttering around his stomach. Joel never did stuff like this, so...what was this? 

When they were a decent way out, Joel stopped them. "Okay, don't laugh?" Ray didn't have a chance to respond, before Joel set the basket down and pulled out a classic red checkered picnic blanket. Ray hid his smile behind a hand, and bit his lip so he wouldn't laugh. It's not that he thought it was stupid, it was that he thought it was adorable and he could almost feel his heart bursting. Joel sat down on the blanket. "Well," He looked up at Ray and squinted to see him. "are you going to sit down?" Even though Joel said this in a joking manner, Ray could see the slight nervousness in his eyes. 

Ray took his hand away from his mouth and sat down next to Joel. "So?" Ray prompted. "What is all this? I thought the famous Joel Heyman 'didn't put effort into relationships'?" Ray smirked a little at Joel's flushed face. 

"Well...you're the exception to that, I guess," Joel shrugged and pulled the basket closer to them. He opened it and mumbled something under his breath. 

"What was that?" Ray smiled. 

Joel looked back up and smiled, seeing the look in Ray's eyes. "I think you're having way too much fun with this, but I  _said_ I think you might be the exception to everything," Joel reached back in and pulled out a wrapped object with the words "Taco Bell" on it. 

Ray flushed a little and he could feel his heart clench and he almost wanted to say "I love you", but didn't. He didn't know what Joel's reaction would be, despite him saying that. People took those three words seriously, but some people, people like Joel, might react...badly to those words if they were spoke prematurely. 

"So...is this like a taco picnic?" Ray smiled a little and grabbed a taco, not making it a secret on how happy he was. 

"Well...yeah, I guess. I thought it would be a cute idea," Joel shrugged while taking a bite of his own taco. "For a birthday gift kinda thing." 

"Well, be happy," Ray leaned over and gave Joel's cheek a peck. "because, this is adorable, you know." Joel beamed at Ray. 

The two continued to eat their tacos, talking about random things from Red Vs. Blue to video games that Ray knew much more about. Neither one said anything, but they could see the love in each others eyes. 

Hours later, the sun was starting to set and the couple was still sat with each other, watching the sun as it went down. Joel turned to Ray. "What was your surprise, babe?" 

Ray leaned away a little and fiddled with his glasses. If Joel didn't know Ray better, he would say that the younger man looked a little apprehensive. "Well, it's kind of big. But you know how we said that when I was able to move down here, I could live with you?" 

Joel nodded. "Of course, and I still stand by that. You're not having second thoughts are you?" Ray smiled a little. Leave it to Joel to think the worst thing first, instead of the obvious. 

"No, idiot. But the reason I have a suitcase with me is because I may have gotten a job at Rooster Teeth with the Achievement Hunters. The rest of my stuff is arriving within the week. I have an apartment set up and ready to buy in case you didn't want to move in together, but ya know..." Ray trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck. 

"Well..." Joel blinked. "You can tell the apartment super that you're not going to buy the apartment." Joel blinked again. "Sorry...it might take me a second to realize what's actually happening." Ray laughed and leaned into Joel so they were laying down, Ray's head on Joel's chest. 

"Well, just don't think too hard okay, Donut?" Ray looked up to see Joel smiling. 

"I'm Caboose, and I'm not," Joel looked down to Ray. "I just, it's gonna take me a few minutes to process that you're actually going to be living with me." Ray's smile got wider, and Joel leaned down to kiss Ray. He pulled back and whispered, "I love you." 

Ray's eyes widened, but he leaned up to kiss Joel's jaw. "Well that's good. Because I love you too, Donut." 

"Caboose." 

"Whatever you say." Ray smiled and snuggled into Joel's chest. 

Yeah...Joel never put effort into anything, but Ray was the exception. Ray was the exception for everything.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make my life have a purpose! Or at least...gives me incentive to write more! Either way, I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
